Family Offering Reward In Grafton Man's Slaying

YORK — As calls to the county Sheriff's Department with leads in the murder of a 58-year-old Grafton man slowed down, his family's hope that the murderer would be caught lessened.

So Brenda Pierce, the victim's stepdaughter, got on the phone Thursday to raise money for a reward.

"We're hoping that it's high enough that someone will talk," she said. "Someone knows something. If they're hiding somewhere, someone has to be hiding them. Any information will help."

For any information leading to the arrest and conviction of James W. Johnson's abductor and murderer, the reward promises $10,000. Pierce raised $4,000 of that amount between 6:30 and 11 p.m. Thursday.

David Traylor, who worked with Johnson in the construction business for 25 years in York County, said he pledged money to the fund, so "hopefully they'll catch the man. It possibly could help. It can't hurt."

Traylor reiterates the disbelief shared by friends and family about Johnson's murder: "He didn't have an enemy in the world."

Rewards have enticed people to give information that solves cases, but not often, said Capt. Ron Montgomery with the county Sheriff's Department. The frequency of calls about the Johnson case dropped from several a day in the beginning of February to one a week more recently, he said.

Johnson was found dead Feb. 6 on Crawford Road with a bullet wound in his chest. His legs had been taped and his hands were handcuffed. He had been missing since he failed to return home Jan. 30 from an appointment with a potential buyer for his 1989 Mercedes Benz.

Since discovering Johnson's body, investigators have been unable to identify a person fitting the suspect's description: a man who identified himself Jan. 29 to Johnson and his wife as J.C. Jiles.

Joyce Johnson described him as a light-skinned black man in his late 20s, five feet 10 inches tall and 155 pounds.

The Mercedes was found abandoned in the Byrd Park neighborhood of Richmond on Feb. 12, putting into question the theory that Johnson had been murdered for the car.

But Pierce is convinced that's the way it happened, and that as the story got publicity, the thief dropped off the car.

"If they had a buyer or a chopper, the person wouldn't take the car because the story broke," she said.

Efforts to raise a reward started the day James William Johnson was buried, and 26 local businesspeople raised $2,500.

Johnson moved to the Peninsula in 1960 and operated his own business, MAS-CON Construction Co., which specializes in building storm drains and manholes.

His wife, also a local businessperson, owns Heritage Hut Antiques and Country Gifts on Route 17, where her two daughters work.

Anyone who would like to donate to the reward fund may write a check to Jimmy Johnson's Fund, c/o York Crime Line Inc., P.O. Box 1095, Grafton 23692.

York Crime Line offers a separate reward of up to $1,000 for any information leading to the arrest of a suspect.